Integrating Science and Policy

Roger Kasperson is Research Professor at Clark University and a Visiting Scholar at START in Washington, DC. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Risk Analysis. He has served on numerous committees of the US National Research Council. He was a former Executive Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute.Mimi Berberian is a Senior Staff Associate at the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University. She has participated with researchers in various studies of natural and technological hazards, risk assessment and risk management, and global environmental change. She has a long experience in editing and has facilitated the preparation of numerous research results for publication as journal articles and books. Among those published are Equity Issues in Radioactive Waste Management, Climate Impact Assessment, and Social Contours of Risk.

'This is a timely and important volume that offers a refreshingly new view of the interactions between scientists and policy makers. Conventional ideas are challenged and practical implications identified. Anyone interested in science, society and the environment will find it highly informative.' Dr Michael Howes, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy, Griffith University, Australia

• Introduction: Characterizing the Science / Practice Gap Part 1: What do we Know Now? 1. Knowledge to Practice in the Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Resilience Literature: A Propositional Inventory 2. Integrating Science and Practice for the Mitigation of Natural Disasters: Barriers, Bridges, Propositions 3. Linking Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Resilience Science to Practice: Pathways, Players, and Partnerships Part 2: Growing Political Urgency: Climate Change 4. From the U.S. Global Change Research Act (1990) to the Climate Change Science Program 5. Linking Climate Change Science with Policy in California 6. Russia's Climate Policy and the Kyoto Ratification Deal: Assessing the Science/Practice Interface 7. Urban and Social Vulnerability to Climate Variability in Tijuana, Mexico Part 3: The Science / Practice Gap: Global Perspectives 8. Food Insecurity in South Africa 9. Science and Vulnerability in Taiwan after the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake 10. Participatory Evaluation of Development Interventions in a Vulnerable African Environment 11. Science and Indigenous Knowledge in Resource Management in the Canadian Arctic 12. Reducing Vulnerability of Rural Communities in the Philippines: Modeling Social Links between Science and Policy 13. Addressing Vulnerability in the European Program for Food Aid and Food Security: Knowledge Gaps, Obstacles, and Opportunities Across the Science/Practice Interface 14. Land in Transition: Coping with Market Forces in Managing Rangelands in Mongolia 15. Managing Floods and Scarcity in a Monsoon Climate Part 4: Where Do We Go From Here? 16. Issues That Need to be Addressed: Assessing Experience 17. Directions for Closing the Science/Practice Gap